Cross-cultural comparisons of Japanese and Australian responses to manipulations of sourness, saltiness and bitterness in foods

Panels of Japanese and Australian consumers evaluated four foods in which tastant levels had been manipulated to produce four samples of each food. The foods (and tastants) were: orange juice (citric acid); grapefruit juice (caffeine); salad dressing (citric acid); and cornflakes (sodium chloride). The panels gave ratings of intensity, liking, and just right for the manipulated taste, and overall liking for all samples. In addition, a variety of other sensory attributes were rated. There were no cross-cultural differences in the perception of the manipulated taste intensity in any of the foods. For hedonic ratings, the patterns of response to increasing taste intensities varied according to food and culture. However, there was good cross-cultural agreement regarding the optimal level of tastant for each food. Multiple regressions revealed a common core of attributes that explained the variance of overall liking, although, for each food, there were differences between the Japanese and Australians in which additional attributes contributed to the best fit models.